Lemmens The Virtual Challenge to International Cooperation in Higher Education Bernd Wächter (ed.) Aca papers on International Cooperation in Education The V irtual Challenge to International Cooperation in Higher Education

Nordplus
The Nordplus programme made this initiative possible. The four faculty mem-
bers applied for a Nordplus grant in February 1999 and received a subsidy of
100,000 Norwegian crowns. Nordplus is a programme of the Nordic Council
of Ministers, with the objective of enhancing cooperation between higher
education institutions in the Nordic countries, of increasing Nordic cohesion
and kinship, and of improving the quality of education. It funds, among other
activities, intra-Nordic mobility of students and faculty. The course started in
January 2000. The Nordplus grant covered travel and accommodation costs
for six Nordic students for two separate weeks in Iceland, and travel ex-
penses of faculty to and from Iceland as well. The remaining six students
managed to find funding elsewhere or paid from their own pocket, in order to
be able to take part. Nordplus also provided funds for technology and
connections, which was important. The largest cost item was the ISDN
connection between the four (at times five) different locations, as well as
travel.
Long term benefits of the course
With the help of technology, this course brought education to students in four
countries in a very effective way. A whole new world was opened up with the
help of new technologies hitherto unknown to the students. They exercised
learning by doing, by utilising technology for their own growth and benefit.
They experienced a shift from teacher-centred education towards student-
centred learning which, from a pedagogical perspective, is very important.
The students, all of them nurses older than the average graduate student,
were able to identify and share similarities and differences in nursing educa-
tion in different countries with the help of WebCT. With its bulletin boards and
chat rooms, WebCT makes interaction between students easy. Discussions
between students were lively and interesting, new perspectives were opened
and experience was shared. Innovations went far beyond using tools for
downloading information or studying lecture materials available online. The
course was essentially about developing skills in acquiring knowledge from
ever-expanding electronic information sources, and eliminating distance in
time and space, which are valuable elements for the today’s world. One of
the students summarised this nicely:
In this course, we are introduced to using technological means for studying. I
have now learned how to find and contact other people working in my field of
nursing on a worldwide basis. The discussions on bulletin boards and chat
rooms have been very interesting, especially when different cultures have met
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– really cross-cultural: USA, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. With this teaching
method, I can be in courses from different countries in the same semester –
giving me a more international view on the subjects and giving me new ways
in combining my studies – not limited to the location of the University. Most
important is that, through technological means taught in this course, you get
access to the leading persons in the nursing field you are studying. The last
point will last beyond the course. (Gudmundsdottir, E.)